Optimally placing content on a web page is a widely held problem. In print media, content layout may be done at the editorial staff's sole discretion. Traditionally, editors have relied on their experience and rules of thumb to determine which articles should be placed on a page and how the selected articles should be arranged. Web publishing, however, is more complicated than the traditional approach to print media since it is possible to turn over content on a more frequent basis online. Furthermore, publishers may tailor content online for each visiting audience. The inclusion of these additional capabilities for web publishing, while advantageous to the publisher, greatly increases the difficulty of the editorial staff's task by multiplying the number of editorial decisions that need to be made to keep a media property up to date.
As web publishing continues to mature and online publishers compete to increase efficiency and revenue for online publishing, there is an increasing demand for the creation of tools to help publishers simplify the compounded editorial decision making problem in web publishing. First of all, there needs to be tools to help editors optimize content layout and to efficiently share content published at different website locations. Second, there needs to be tools to help editors compare the performance of content. Third, there needs to be tools to optimize layout of content items for user-level content personalization.
What is needed is a system and method for optimizing content layout in web publishing that may help publishers simplify editorial decision making and increase revenue. Such a system and method should provide feedback from online publishing systems that can be used to accurately tune content in real time, helping editors keep up to date and maximize revenue for each user visit.